This year’s udo (Aralia cordata) selfie pictures, probably the highest ever with a flowering spike way above my head. I harvested about 1/3 of the shoots in the […]
Pollinators
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Temnostoma vespiforme
Over the last couple of years I’ve been trying to document as much as possible of the incredible diversity of insects and spiders that are living in The […]
Foraging
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Alpine bistort harvest and the Idas Blue
More or less the only plant I forage these days from the wild are alpine bistort (harerug) bulbils (Polygonum viviparum / Persicaria vivipara) to dry for the winter. […]
Bees / Pollinators
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No shortage of bumblebees
Several species of bumblebee were queuing up for a turn on the Allium pskemense x cepa hybrid in the garden this afternoon: Post Views: 176
Talks
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Edimentals Goes Mainstream
On the 12th June, I gave my first webinar at a mainstream gardening conference in the US, the Southeastern Plant Symposium, hosted by the JC Raulston Arboretum and […]
Edimentals / Onions / Perennial vegetables
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Chiugok, Small Bird’s Garlic, a hardy Himalayan edimental
Like Sherpa onion or Nepalese onion Allium wallichii, which features in my book Around the World in 80 plants, chiugok (small bird’s garlic) as Allium macrantum is known […]
Birds
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There’s always one: blue tit taking a shower!
It was close to 30C and I was working outside this afternoon and decided that my saskatoons (Amelanchier) could do with a bit of water. The hose was […]
Annuals / Biannuals / Food / Perennial vegetables
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Early July Veg
Here are some of the vegetables we’re currently using.From left to right: Common sow thistle / haredylle (Sonchus oleraceus) will be in most meals from now to SeptemberParsley […]
Berries / Drying / Fruit
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Dried fruit salad
The fresh fruit season approaches rapidly as the first fruit ripens…wild strawberries (markjordbær) and haskaps (Lonicera edulis). Since the fresh apples ran out early April we’ve been eating […]
Onions
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Tall Swamp Onion
Years ago, I was at a work meeting in San Francisco with my colleague Harald Krogstad who sadly died in 2020. It’s very easy to put a date […]
Edimentals / Onions
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Allium ulleungense: a new vigorous edimental
In 2019, a very interesting paper was published giving a very good case for splitting the geographically widespread Allium victorialis species complex, at the same time describing a […]
Beetles / Insects / Pollinators
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Bee beetle
One of my favourite insects is the bee beetle / humlebille (Trichius fasciatus). This morning I saw it on one of my favourite onions victory onion / seiersløk […]
flower buds / Flower stalk / Food
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Flower buds and broccolis from perennial vegetables
As we approach midsummer many of my perennial vegetables are beginning to flower and from spring leaves and shoots we are now in the flower bud, scape (flower […]
Poisonous plants
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Best left for the bees!
I inherited a garden full of columbines / akeleier (Aquilegia vulgaris) and there’s a range of different forms. I took the pictures below yesterday. I tried sucking a […]
Butterflies and moths
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Second speckled wood
The second observation of speckled wood (skogringvinge) here and still the only place this species has been seen on this (the south) side of the fjord (see the […]
Community Garden
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KVANN’s World Garden
At the Væres Venner community garden on the outskirts of Trondheim at Ranheim in an area we hope will remain a green belt, I have been working to […]
Birds
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Blackcap song
It’s not often that I see the resident blackcap singing as it usually sings well hidden in the bushes, but today it sang from the top of a […]
Fruit
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Quince in full flower
15 years old, my quince / kvede (Cydonia oblonga) is in full flower, a year after the first two flowers appeared (no fruit). I think I got this […]
Edible flowers / Food / Salad
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Celebration 40 genera salad
40 years ago this month I came to Norway to find a place for us to live as I was to start work at Institutt for kontinentalsokkelundersøkelser (IKU; […]
Perennial vegetables
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Early June Greens and Whites
Presenting some of this week’s perennial greens and, in the case of the blanched Hosta shoots, perennial whites!Hosta sieboldiana with ramsons / ramsløk (Allium ursinum) and giant bellflower […]
Medicinal plants
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Chelidonium majus: the double form
Chelidonium majus (from the poppy family Papaveraceae), or greater celandine (Norw: Svaleurt), is an important plant in western phytotherapy and in traditional Chinese medicine and is known here […]
Seed sAVING
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Start of the seed saving season
As usual, the first seed of edible plants to be collected from the garden is dandelion, this year on the last day of May.The moss-leaved dandelion (Taraxacum sublaciniosum […]
Spiders
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Invasion of spiders?
Young crowned orb weaver / korsedderknopp (Araneus diadematus) spiders on the house wall will catch many insects during the summer! Post Views: 106
Food / Perennial vegetables
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Tonight’s pizza greens
were….Purple sprouting perennial kale broccolis Allium scorodoprasum leeks (bendelløk)Good king henry / stolt henrik flower buds Post Views: 141
Birds
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Common gull commotion
Common gulls (fiskemåke) nest on houses around here, but never on my roof. Filmed this little interaction between 3 birds on 21st May. Post Views: 108